


Hope

by Sira



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 11:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6373294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sira/pseuds/Sira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another short take on the reunion scene in season 5, episode 1.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

His feet were moving before his mind had fully comprehended what he was seeing.

Carol.

She was alive.

She was back.

With them.

With him.

Wrapping his arms around her slender, too thin frame, he inhaled deeply, squeezing her so tight against his body, he might leave bruises. Not that there was any room for conscious thought. Right now he could only feel, his heart beating so hard, so fast might burst out of his chest.

He didn’t like to be touched, to touch in return, but this was Carol, it was right. He needed to feel the physical evidence of her existence, had to know this was more than just a figment of his imagination.

He lifted her, and for a second he wondered if they would fall to the ground, but they didn’t. He wouldn’t have cared if they had.

Tears were stinging his eyes, but he wasn’t embarrassed, didn’t feel ashamed. After all they had already been through, his world had tilted on its axis once more, only this time everything that had seemed so wrong before was better again. Because of her.

She was… Carol, his family, his friend, the one reason to keep going, always keep going even when it seemed so utterly senseless from time to time.

He might not have the right words to tell her, it might never be quite the right time for even trying to voice hem, but he had trust in his conviction that she knew. He trusted that Carol knew that she was the world for him.

He pulled away, and there it was, all the prove he could ever need, right there in her eyes, shining with unshed tears. He wished he could look at her forever, their gazes locked, still he stepped away, not leaving her out of his sight for a second.

While he watched Rick folding her into a tight embrace, he tried to wrap his head around the fact this was real indeed.

For the last few years it had seemed there was only loss with Sophia’s the first one to touch him right at his very core. He had done everything to get the little girl back to her mother, but in the end she had been dead, a walker, the entire time.

So many of them had died afterwards, all of these deaths leaving him numb. Any soul could only bear that much pain. People being with them one day and dead the next, it became their reality.

Having thought he was done with the pain, had accepted this was life, he found his brother who had turned into a walker, just like Sophia had. His last remaining blood kin was gone.  
His heart had shattered into even more pieces.

It couldn’t get worse, could it? It could; as he learned when he found out Rick had banished Carol, his anchor in a world he didn’t want to fit in to in the first place.

He hadn’t been numb either when he watched Beth vanishing into the night. She was gone. Maybe still alive, bust most probably dead.

He had failed another person.

Loss. It was the only constant in this world.

For the first time in too long a time someone had returned, though.

To them.

To him.

Carol was back.

He knew he’d be able to go on with her at his side. She had taught him so many things, even if she wasn’t aware of it. She had taught him to be patient, or at least more patient than he used to be, she had taught him to never give up hope, to be part of a team, and today she had taught him that there was hope.

Carol had saved them all. They would get to live another day.

With Carol… there was hope.


End file.
